A staggering price tag for illegal drinks

LBI man finds out: 'It kills you financially'

Nov. 12, 2007

Eileen LeGrand (center), flanked by assistant Barbara Manning and Kaitlin LeGrand, her daughter and a ninth-grader, teaches a class for at-risk teens at Toms River High School East. / (STAFF PHOTO: BOB BIELK)

Written by

LAUREN O. KIDD

STAFF WRITER

The Asbury Park Press and News 12 New Jersey have combined forces on this special report about underage drinking, along with Prevention First and the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Council of Ocean. To promote a community dialogue on the issue, two public forums will be held: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Freehold Township High School, which will be aired live by News 12, and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Toms River North High School.

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TOMS RIVER — The costs of underage drinking are staggering.

A combination of medical care, work loss, pain and suffering associated with problems resulting from alcohol use by youths cost Americans $60.3 billion in 2005, according to the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center.

The Maryland-based center was established by the U.S. Department of Justice to help states and local communities enforce underage drinking laws, prevent underage drinking, and thus eliminate the consequences associated with alcohol use by those banned by law from drinking it because they are under 21.

Nolan Howe, 21, of Beach Haven knows those consequences all too well.

In August 2006 Howe was caught drinking and driving when he collided with another vehicle while driving about 10 mph, he said. He was then 20 years old, so even though he said he thought he was sober by the time he got behind the wheel, "it didn't matter. I couldn't have anything in my system," he said.

Howe said he had gone to an afternoon barbecue with some friends, where they had "a couple beers with our burgers." Then they went surfing. When Howe got out of the water, he figured he was sober, he said.

That decision to drive after having "a couple beers" cost him about $20,000, Howe estimated.

He lost his business working on boats because he could no longer drive himself to the boat yards, he said, and was forced to take a job that that paid less. He had to pay for a lawyer, court fees, fees to get his truck out of the police impound lot and to get his license back, and 16 weeks of classes on alcohol education. He had to pay for rides, and his insurance costs shot up, Howe said.

"It kills you financially," said Howe, who classifies himself as the No. 1 advocate for not drinking and driving.

Underage drinking costs New Jersey citizens about $1.5 billion in 2005, or about $1,810 per year for each youth in the state, according to the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. That bill is based on medical care, work loss, and pain and suffering associated with multiple problems resulting from underage drinking. The Garden State ranks 37th in the nation for the impact underage drinking costs has on its citizens.

Despite the fairly low ranking, excluding pain and suffering, the direct cost for medical care and lost time at work from underage drinking in New Jersey is $546 million per year, according to the center.

And financial costs are not the only negative effects of drinking too much too early. Underage drinking affects users and the people around them as well, according to experts.

"It creates problems for the whole family and the whole community, and that is not something to take lightly," said Arthur Dean, chairman and CEO of the Community Anti- Drug Coalitions of America, based in Virginia.

"Loud and unruly behavior, property destruction, unintentional injuries, violence, and even death because of underage alcohol use afflict innocent parties," according to the "Surgeon General's Call to Action To Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking," released this year.

Because those effects "often strike at random" underage drinking is everybody's problem, the report states.

"The short- and long-term consequences that arise from underage alcohol consumption are astonishing in their range and magnitude, affecting adolescents, the people around them, and society as a whole," according to the report.

According to the report, alcohol is:-- A leading contributor to death from injuries.-- The main cause of death for those under 21. -- Involved in the fatalities of about 5,000 youngsters, who die from alcohol-related injuries. Nearly 2,000 of those deaths involve motor-vehicle crashes.

Underage alcohol consumption contributes to risky sexual behavior, such as unwanted, unintended and unprotected sexual activity, and sex with multiple partners, which increases the likelihood of unplanned pregnancy and contracting sexually transmitted diseases, according to the report.

The report also warns that underage alcohol consumption increases the risk of physical and sexual assault and is associated with academic failure, illicit drug use, tobacco use, can cause physical consequences ranging from hangovers to death from alcohol poisoning, can cause alterations to the structure and function of the developing brain, and can lead to fetal-alcohol syndrome.

Underage drinking also can lead to heavy drinking later in life, according to the report.

Patricia Healy, substance awareness coordinator at Toms River Intermediate East, and Howe's teacher in his alcohol class, thinks parents have to become attuned to the consequences of underage drinking.

"Parents are so frightened by the larger issues, especially in our area, that parents almost feel relief that it is alcohol," said Healy, who is a parent herself. "The interesting problem is it is tobacco, alcohol and marijuana that have been called the gateway drugs."

"I think there is an alcohol problem with underage drinkers because of accessibility and the misconception that it is not harmful," said Carey Wainwright, Ocean County alcoholism and substance abuse services coordinator. "It is costing us a great deal."

The dean of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey agrees.

Dr. Robert Johnson said parents often are concerned about higher-profile drugs, but alcohol is the drug they should really worry about hurting their kids.

"It is more likely to cause a problem," he said.

"People are worried about ecstasy and designer drugs and all that," Johnson said, but "there are more kids who drink, and it is easier to get."

Johnson, who also has a private clinical practice where he counsels youth from around the state, including Monmouth and Ocean counties, said the problem is not that all kids who drink become alcoholics.

"There are many teenagers who get into trouble because of alcohol ... not because of alcoholism. It is because of alcohol, period," he said.

Even kids who drink periodically can get into trouble, he said.

Over the summer concert season, hundreds of young people were arrested and charged with underage drinking at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, the result of an increased police presence after 13 minors attending a Gwen Stefani concert in May were hospitalized for alcohol-related illnesses.

But the severity of the consequences of underage drinking "obviously depends on quantity and frequency," according to David Rosenbloom, professor of public health at Boston University's School of Public Health and director of Join Together, an organization that supports drug and alcohol treatment and prevention programs in communities.

"So the more kids drink in terms of quantity and frequency, the more likely they are to develop such negative consequences," such as to their health and judgment, and an increase in the likelihood that they will get into fights, unwanted sexual encounters and their life chances will diminish, he said.

Drinking is not the only cause of those problems, but "sometimes youthful drinking is a marker for other problems in the kids lives that need to be addressed, and sometimes it is a contributing cause," Rosenbloom said. "But it is always a warning sign that parents often miss."